Aylmer
March 1941

Dear Mum:

Suppose a letter now and then never comes amiss. I have a good chance to knock one off here just at present. I am on duty flight and am working in the orderly office for an hour so having nothing to do might as well get some practice on typing.

How is everybody keeping these days. I suppose Pa is getting his buckets ready for the sap season. I was thinking he wouldn't bother making this year, but if he doesn't likely somebody else will want his equipment so he might just as well.

Has he sold any of those huge porkers yet? They should soon be ready for the axe. After that big storm you had, I suppose he will have to take them out by sleigh. From what the papers said you really got it bad up there. It said that on a line north from Stratford and Orangeville everything was blocked, even the main highways. I was almost going to come home Saturday night but thought the weather would be very doubtful by Sunday so stayed here. Things are getting so that if you are five minutes late you are just as liable to get 21 days detention as you are to get a weeks C.B. They are giving severe punishment here now for anything at all. I thought they would try to leave the men to their own judgement for the most part, especially in a country which is supposed to have freedom. However, as far as we are concerned it is a dictatorship. They put on new rules every day…. A guy who got sick while away on leave came back with a doctor's certificate and a discharge from hospital and the C.O. told him that he had no reason to A.W.O.L. and that he shouldn't get sick while on leave. I think that showed that the man's intelligence had shrunk to microscopic size when he would say a thing like that. However, the most of the officers are in there only for their politics and not their brains.

Enough for that sort of thing. I don't care about it myself because I don't intend to do any coming in late or skipping for a few days, but when they crime fellows who miss a few minutes or hours through no fault of their own, it makes me boil. I just think what's the use of fighting if we are the same here as we would be in Germany.

We were issued with knives forks and spoons yesterday so now we have to wash our own. The fellows deserv'd it though because they were carrying them away all the time, so now they have to carry them all the time. It's just a case of a few making it tough for all as is always the case where they are allowed to do things as they please.

I guess you'll think I am getting sick of the place. On the contrary, I think it is O.K. outside of the discipline. The course is getting better all the time and I am certainly learning more about aeroplanes that I never dreamed had to be learned before I came in. The things that effect an aeroengine are altogether different to an automobile engine.

Our intermediate comes on Thursday so we are all studying up past work as well as present for the big day. I am not afraid of it, not afraid enough for my own good, but in all the reviews we have I seem to know all the work so think I can manage a pass O.K. We have had a couple of first class instructors in the last two classes. The one we have now is a Flight Sergeant and has been at this type of work for 15 years.

I signed up for one $10.00 certificate each month this week, and am having my insurance changed over also and taken from my pay. I sent Paddy Whetstone the papers I got from the Company and you have to sign one of them I think, so I advised him to sign it and send it to you. When you sign them will you also send the policy too because I have to send it back too.

I get letters from [brother] Jim every week and he seems to be enjoying it to the fullest. I believe he is better in a repair depot than in a squadron because he has such regular hours and also gets a lot of flying. He will soon be a pilot by the way he has been getting up lately. He says he isn't a bit lonely so I guess he is finding his way around.

This is a L.C. Smith typewriter but it works not bad. Shell hasn't brought the other one down so I guess I won't bother with it now. Since the time he forgot it I haven't had many notes to type anyway so it was just as well.

I have a 48 coming up next Sunday (I mean a week from the coming Sun.). Last Sunday I was up at London with Murray Freedman and we stayed at a hotel all Sat. nite and on Sun. afternoon went down to Bob Phillip's at Port Stanley. We looked the place over and it was very nice. There were a lot of people down around the beach looking things over and wishing they could get in the water I suppose.

The Toronto folks sure gave Wendell Wilkie a big boost didn't they? The Yanks seem to be getting into the swing of things now.

I sent Elmer [his brother, in the army] a box of cigars for his birthday so he will keep the house well smoked up now for a while. I would like to get up there again as Jim and Bernice and I want to get him a set of bridge chairs before his golden wedding anniversary. I was telling the boys about the frenchman who asked the fellow six times for a job. I guess I will be home a week from Friday night so until then, I will not bother you with any more correspondence.

Bill